Yankees' Mark Teixeira won't have surgery on knee for now

NEW YORK -- Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira will not have surgery to repair the torn cartilage in his right knee, though he may ultimately need it. The club is hoping that by pursuing a course of treatment and rehab, he could return in three weeks.

Teixeira felt his knee lock up Friday in Baltimore and had to leave the game. He was diagnosed with the tear and was placed on the 15-day disabled list on Saturday. There was a concern that if he had surgery to repair it, he could be lost for the rest of the season. He met with team medical personnel Monday in New York.

"Our goal is to try to get him baseball-ready in three weeks to see where we're at," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said after the Yanks came back from a two-run deficit for a 5-2 win over the Angels at Yankee Stadium. "I can't tell you it's going to be three weeks, but that's our goal through treatment and all the other things that he'll go through.

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"When I say baseball-ready, that would mean that he would be ready to play in a game somewhere. Could it go faster? I guess. Could it go slower? I guess. But that's our goal."

Teixeira is once again mired in a season plagued by injury. He already had to miss four games in the last week of May with a stiff neck and for the season is batting .180 with three home runs and 12 RBIs.

He has not played more than 123 games in a season since 2011 because of a myriad of injuries; his 2015 season was cut short after he played in 111 games because he fouled a ball off his shin and broke the bone. He still hit 31 home runs, and the Yankees were banking on similar production in the final season of his eight-year, $180 million contract.

Girardi was asked how exactly the Yankees would treat a cartilage tear, but was at a bit of a loss.

"It's way over my head to try to understand. I've tried like three times," he said. "So we're going to try the conservative approach and then we go from there."